By Mercy Osajiugo
#TrackNigeria: The Senate President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Mallam Abu Mohammed, has urged the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to call off its strike.
Mohammed is a post- graduate student of the Institute of Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), an affiliate of the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) University Lapai, Niger State.
He made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Minna on Thursday.
According to him, the strike has caused unquantifiable setback to the university system in the country.
NAN recalls that ASUU began an indefinite nationwide strike on Nov. 5 after a breakdown in negotiation with the Federal Government on the need to fund the university appropriately.
NAN also recalls that negotiation resumed on Dec. 4, as the representatives of both parties began to shift grounds from their earlier hard line positions.
It will also be recalled that NANS embarked on strike on Nov. 4 to protest the poor funding of universities and non-implementation of the previous agreements with ASUU.
Mohammed, who lamented the negative impact of the strike on students, urged ASUU to consider the recent offer made to it by the federal government and return to the class room.
Mohammed noted that it would not augur well for the country if the students continued to remain at home, adding that ‘an idle mind is a devil’s workshop’.
The students’ leader said: “we urge ASUU members to call off the more than two months old strike, even as they can continue to pursue their demands with the federal government”.
He said that the use of strike always in the education sub-sector must be discouraged, adding that the routine action was eating deep into the academic profile of the country. (NAN)
